Vacation, Day 2

So Day 2 of vacation wasn’t as long a day of driving as the previous day, but I swear it almost felt longer. Nothing against Minnesota but damn, it takes a long time to get through your state and it is pretty damn flat for a LOT of it. haha. We drove for 9 hours and besides wind farms and fields, we didn’t see much. That’s with the exception of 2 things.

First, the highlight of the drive was most certainly crossing the Mighty Mississippi River for the first time (driving anyway). They really should call it the Mighty Mississippi and not just lame old “Mississippi River”. But it is what it is.

It was pretty exciting. As kayakers, we can always appreciate a good river. Although, I’d never kayak in this river. This is definitely a big boat river. Especially around the locks which are around where we were crossing.

The second great thing was this little store/restaurant called “Amish Ovens” somewhere on the road .I don’t remember exactly where, but they had these amazing apple cake things. We were good though, and only split one.

Oh, and also we saw some really funny signs for the Spam Museum but we never actually saw it. Bummer.

The lack of scenery changed when we arrived at our final destination for the evening. We arrived in Mitchell, SD around 6pm. It may seem like a small, inconsequential town, but Mitchell knows otherwise. Mitchell is home of the one, and only (as they like to emphasize) Corn Palace.

They decorate this entire building, inside and out, with new and exciting murals EVERY YEAR. And it’s made entirely of corn products. Husk, cobs, etc. What’s really cool are the indoor murals. The video you can watch show how they make the murals and it’s basically a big “Corn by Numbers” pattern.

For some reason I also feel like I appreciate the show “Parks and Rec” a little more after watching the little video they make you watch. Apparently there was a competition when Sioux Falls tried to build their own Corn Palace. When they failed was when Mitchell decided they’d be the ones to do it! And they did, so now they’re famous. For a Corn Palace.

They’re in the middle of fixing up this years for their big festival in August, so this is technically last years design, but it’s pretty sweet if I can say so. The place is used for concerts, high school basketball games, etc. When we arrived there were just little stores set up on the floor. That was fine by me because there’s nothing I love more than kitchy knick knack crap. It’s right up my alley. I’ll warn you that if you stop to see the corn palace, you maybe need an hour in the whole town, but it’s a cute little town, for sure.